UAE residents' front-row seats for iPhone 6s, 6s Plus launch tonight

Gadget geeks and early adopters eager for Apple’s new launches tonight

By

Vicky Kapur

PublishedWednesday, September 09, 2015

Apple is hosting its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch tonight in the US. (Pic: goldengenie.com)

What will gadget-loving UAE residents be doing at 9pm on 9-9 (tonight)?

We’re bound to be glued to our screens to figure out what Apple has in store for them in its latest instalment of iPhones – the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus.

With just hours to go for the covers to be taken off the new devices, rumours are flying thick and fast about what the new iPhones may or may not sport under their hoods.

UAE residents are indeed early adopters of technology, and that’s one of the reasons why smartphone manufacturers from BlackBerry to Samsung have Dubai in their global launch schedules.

“The rapid and continuous growth in the smartphone market demonstrates the high demand for the devices, the high spending power of consumers, as well as the high early adoption rate in the country, making the UAE an ideal market for new smartphone launches,” says Faisal Al Bannai, CEO of axiom.

Apple is hosting its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch tonight in the US, but that wouldn’t stop us from being part of it.

“Being one of the biggest and strongest players on the smartphone scene, Apple’s product launches are always very highly anticipated by technology enthusiasts across the region, and we constantly look forward to being the first to offer our customers the latest innovations from Apple’s mobile device range,” says Al Bannai.

Before we get into reminding you how you can (still) get front-row seats for the show, let’s look at what to expect from Tim Cook & Co. tonight.

May the Force (Touch) be with you

Hard, harder, hardest – those are the troika of touches that your new iPhones will be able to decipher. Going by rumours, the 3D Touch Display now seems a likely inclusion in the new iPhones. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are likely to sport a screen based on the Force Touch technology from the latest MacBook trackpads and the Apple Watch – only better.

MacBook and Apple Watch have screens with dual sensitivity levels while the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are expected to take it to, well, the next level, sporting triple sensitivity.

Best face forward

As we’ve mentioned before, the iPhone’s camera system is in for a major revamp, with a pixel-count upgrade from the current 8MP to 12MP – a first since the launch of the iPhone 4s in 2011.

The leaks confirm to a better, bigger front-facing FaceTime camera, which will also get front flash support – LED or otherwise.
Bend me once…

Apple’s learnt its lesson (or so it’s rumoured) from last year’s #Bendgate, and will be using a new grade of aluminium to ensure that no more iPhones end up disfigured or, worse, cracked. In addition, a Forbes report citing KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo maintains the iPhone 6s colour-scheme will mimic that of Apple Watch, and therefore, expect it in rose gold.

Double delight

Going by the naming convention – the iPhone’s ‘s’ variants don’t get a size upgrade – there may not be much to differentiate the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the looks department. But do expect Apple to load the new devices with a host of faster, stronger features: a faster A9 chip, a doubling of RAM to 2GB, quicker LTE speeds for browsing, and better battery life. In addition, the 16GB version may make a comeback.

Apple has opened up the event broadcast to a browser other than Safari. The Edge browser, Microsoft’s replacement of Internet Explorer and part of the Windows 10 platform, supports HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) – and so will be able to beam it live to your living room (or wherever it is you decide to plant your laptop this evening).

You can of course watch it on your iPhones, MacBooks or iPads – or your Safari for Windows browser (which died in 2012, by the way).

Click here to watch live as CEO Tim Cook takes the stage on 09/09/15 at 9pm UAE time, unveiling what many believe will not just be the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but also a host of other announcements.

Millions of Apple fans can catch the keynote ‘live’ as Apple will be streaming it live on its mobile devices including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch (Safari on iOS version 7.0 or later), and Mac with Safari 6.0.5 or later on OSX (v10.8.5 or later). You could also stream it on Apple TV (second- or third-generation set-top box, and should be running software version 6.2 or later).